


ILY3000

by hpfangrl



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Dealing With Trauma, Gen, Hallucinations, Morgan is a robot!, Post Infinity War, hella angst, inspired by a tumblr post, unhealthy coping methods, why can I only write angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-02-07 09:43:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21455986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hpfangrl/pseuds/hpfangrl
Summary: “I totally thought Tony made a robot daughter for the whole dang movie. I thought for sure in the beginning, especially since Pepper didn’t have anything to do with her. And then when she said I Love You 3000 I thought haha she’s the ILY 3000 that’s her model. And when Tony said to captain and Nat I have to be careful I have a daughter and they look down all sad, I thought they were sad because Tony Stark has lost his goddamn mind and Believes his robot daughter is real”
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Tony Stark & Morgan Stark, Tony Stark & Nebula, Tony Stark & Stark Robots, Tony Stark/Pepper Potts
Comments: 10
Kudos: 52





	ILY3000

It started as a dream. Maybe it was the amount of time he’d been spending with Peter (god he was proud of how the kid had matured), or purely wishful thinking. In any case, the dream was so real, so real that he woke up clutching his blankets, trying to feel the warmth of the tiny body he’d been bouncing, cooing at and trying to coax words out of. He turned and saw Pepper, sleeping sound as always. He made a note to ask her on their morning jog.

That morning was, of course, the day that everything went to hell as Hell came to Earth. He was angry when Spidey stepped out from the shadows of the ship, but to be honest he couldn’t be all that surprised. The kid was a genius, yes, but he was also loyal to a fault. It broke his heart knowing how slim the chances were that the teen would ever see Earth again; that is, if there would be anything left of Earth to see.

Then Titan happened, and Tony’s thoughts as Thanos pushed his blade deeper through his stomach ranged from “gotta stay strong gotta keep fighting must protect peter” to “are you there, dad? are you proud of me? it won’t be long until we meet again, and if there’s one thing i wanted in life was to be a better father than you.” Strange gave the stone up, Thanos portalled away (no doubt to Earth, god he hoped Bruce had it under control) (not Cap he wasn’t even going to think about him) and Tony was left to close his wound. They were silent, the ragtag group, as they helped each other up and brushed each other off.

Then the bug lady (Mantis?) started to disintegrate. “Something is wrong,” she said, and then she was dust in the wind. He stood, helplessly and watched as their party dwindled down to three.

“Mr. Stark?”  
He turned around. His face was numb. His heart was numb. His brain was pleading, pleading for this to be just another dream, just a bad dream. “I don’t feel so good.” He reassured Peter, did everything he could, then held the kid in his arms as the life snuffed out.

On the ship, he could tell when he began suffering from dehydration. Not because he was any thirstier, but because Peter was there. Peter was there, and then Pepper was there, and then the child that he had helped create was there. In the dream, it had been a boy, but now she was a girl. A beautiful little girl. And Morgan was a gender-neutral name, wasn’t it?

He recorded some messages to Pepper, telling her how much he loved her. Then he recorded some for his daughter. She was real enough now, real enough that he could see her and hear here and try to play games with her. He’d always end up in the captain’s chair, with a blanket and no memory of how he got there. It could have been the Violet Beauregard knockoff, but to be honest, it also could have been his sweet little girl, always trying to make sure daddy’s okay.

Then the walking flying glowstick arrived and towed them back to Earth. The first to greet them, to help him off the ship was Rogers, who said he’d lost but what had he even lost? A brainwashed assassin and a guy who could fly. Tony had lost a son, and he didn’t seem to care, and—and then he saw Pepper. He embraced her. He never wanted to let go, but they had plans to be made, apparently.

He argued with Steve, because Steve didn’t understand, he argued until he passed out. He woke up and found out that they’d gone and killed Thanos without him. That was… that was just fine because the others could only see the power to destroy, but he could see the power to create.

It took a bit, but he found a nice house, secluded, by a lake. He found water to be soothing. He went down into the basement, and he set up a small lab, and he started working. Working to carry out his dream.

It took him seven days total. Six days of caffeinated, almost non-stop work, and when he was finished he passed out for around 19 hours. But when he woke up, there she was. His little girl, the one that had kept him company on the ship.

ILY3000 was the technical name for the prototype, but he just called her Morgan.

Her bones were adamantium, her flesh was nanobytes. Her skin was the same material Barnes had used to conceal his weaponized limb, but Tony chose to ignore that fact. Nobody would ever be able to harm his daughter. Morgan sprang into the world four-years-old and perfect, and four-years-old and perfect she would stay.

When he introduced her to Pepper, he saw the fear in his wife’s eyes. But she soon calmed to the idea, and loved the girl as if she’d carried her. He saw the looks in the eyes of his friends, even the fleeting looks given by Pepper. They thought he was insane. They pitied him. “Stark’s so far gone, he thinks his robot daughter’s real. Poor guy.” They were wrong, he knew she was real. He had created her, after all. And he had created her so that she would never face any hurt.

He was amazed at the level of growth she showed. He had programmed her A.I. with the basic intelligence of a four-year-old, but she soon surpassed the smarts of any average 14-year-old. She was beautiful, and she was his, and nobody could take her away from him. He could grow old, but she would stay young forever, stay young and always love her papa.

She loved playing pretend and dress up. Her favorite superhero was Spider-man. She’d find every excuse to sneak into his workshop and play around with one of his older, disabled suits. She loved her Auntie Neb most of all, who returned the love a bit more sincerely that some of his other colleagues. Maybe she could relate to a girl made of metal more than most.

Every night, he’d tuck her in and tell her a story, and he made sure to tell her he loved her.

“I love you a ton,” he’d say, and she’d reply.  
“I love you more.”

Then one night, she looked more excited as they were settling down. They’d had a visit that day, and it had gotten the gears in his head spinning, spinning enough to have figured out time travel on his own. But that’s not what she was excited about.  
“I love you a ton.”  
“I love you 3000!”  
He chuckled and kissed her goodnight. She’d probably been excited to show off that she knew that 3000 pounds was more than a ton (she did like her wordplay), but all he could think of was ILY3000. She was his girl, through and through.

He resolved to go see Cap and the others at the compound the next day.


End file.
